A Development
by TheOceanBreathesSalty
Summary: Fist multi-chapter fic! There will be Justin and Alex and Teresa and Max and Jerry and maybe even an OC POV, it will be switching. There will be Jalex later on. It is a work in progress, so updates may be kind of sporadic. Disclaimed. Enjoy! Review!
1. Chapter 1

Alright! My first multi-chapter fic! I hope you guys like it! I have no idea how long it will be. Warning in advance, there will be Jalex later on. Some Jalex sexin too. Nothing all that explicit, but just in case you're all squeamish on Jalex-ness, I advise you don't proceed. Please review. Gracias :)

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C-H-A-P-T-E-R **O N E**

(a l e x pov)

You were _graduating_. How in the world did that happen? You, the one with a billion and ten detentions, were actually graduating high school.

You had skipped a ridiculous amount of classes and cheated on half your tests and refused to do any homework that wasn't art related.

And yet, you were somehow getting out of this prison they call school.

_Without_ dropping out.

It was the surprise of the entire freaking century.

"Alex! Hurry up! We're going to be late! You can't be late to your own graduation! That's a little extreme! Even for you!" Harper yelled up the stairs, slight panic in her voice.

"I'm com-ing!" you hollered back, breaking the last word in two as you slid your black gown over your head.

You almost didn't want to wear the stupid thing. You were wearing a new dress, emerald green satin flowing around your torso and ending right above your knees. It was strapless and gorgeous and emphasized all your curves perfectly.

It was practically a sin to not let it be seen.

You slid on gold stilettos and a thin gold chain before running down the stairs, grinning as a plan formed in your head.

"I'm here, I'm here!" you laughed breathlessly, smiling at the exasperation and amusement on Justin's face. "Well come on! God, Harper, what's taking you so long?" you laughed again, grabbing an amused Max by the wrist and pulling him towards the door behind you.

Your parents and Justin and Harper all followed, Justin pretending to be annoyed, Harper actually annoyed, and your parents still just in shock that you were graduating. You should probably be offended by that, but honestly, you're pretty surprised too.

You get to the ceremony and Harper quickly drags you towards the line, barely giving you time to wave to your family before your swallowed by the crowd.

Everyone is lined up alphabetically and they're halfway through the R's when you make your move.

You grin at the girl behind you, handing her your hat with a quick _can-you-please-hold-this?-kay-thanks!_ and sliding your gown off over your head. They're on the last name 'Roberts' as you straighten out the green dress and make sure all your curls are lying perfectly against your head.

The girl behind you stares at you stunned as you grab the hat back from her. You ball up the hat and gown and throw them to your left, where the few people with last names starting with a Z stood.

"Alex Russo!" Gets called out on stage and you grin brightly, bouncing up the steps and winking at the boys whistling at the sight of your dress. Mr. Laritate shakes his head resignedly, and you can almost see the though bubble saying **thank you god, she's finally leaving**, because even though you were only there for four years, you're pretty sure that it felt like much, much longer to him.

You catch sight of your family as you grab your certificate, your mom is frowning, Max is laughing, your dad looks kind of bored, and Justin has the strangest mix or disapproval and amusement on his face.

You smile at all of them, flashing a peace sign and sticking out your tongue when your mom holds up the camera, your other hand holding up the document that proudly proclaims you actually graduated.

Everyone sits through the rest of graduation impatiently and when they _finally_ give the okay for throwing up all the caps, you realize yours is behind the stage somewhere and you grab the kid's in front of you, smirking when he turns around to look at you and quickly turns _back_ around when he sees who it is that took his hat.

You throw it up into the air and cheer and find Harper and let her hug you so tightly that you can't really breathe.

You run off to find your family, Harper having gone to find her parents since they had come back to town for graduation, and Max yanks you into him, squeezing you quickly before letting go. He's grinning when he pulls back, rambling on about how **freaking awesome you looked against all those other boring fools**.

Your mom pulls you into a hug next, giving you a slight scolding for the stunt, but not really angry.

And then your dad is hugging you, too tightly but he's still freaking out about his little girl graduating, so you guess you understand.

Then Justin slides his arms around you and whispers, "I am so freaking _proud_ of you," in your ear as he embraces you closely.

The warm feeling lasts until you get back home.

You're crazy excited.

Not only did you _graduate_, which is still unbelievable no matter how many times you say it, but you also got into a college.

A _good_ one.

With a _scholarship_.

For _art_.

What more could you want?

You got into New York University, where Justin also happened to attend, and your tuition was completely paid for as long as you retained an 3.0 and did well in your art classes.

To you, it wasn't all that surprising to get in because you maybe, kind of, sort of wore the smarty pants for your college entrance exams.

But the scholarship, that one was a shocker.

You did _not_ see it coming. You were getting free tuition for taking classes that you already would've taken and you were being recognized for art, for something that you loved to do.

It was _wonderful_ and your parents were so happy and everything was going pretty fantastic in your life right now.

There was a party in the substation, you and your family, Harper and hers, and a few other kids that you guys were almost friends with. Everyone was dancing and talking and your dad was trying to convince people to eat some crazy weird sub he had come up with.

You were sitting on the staircase, just taking it all in, when Justin broke away from Max and Harper and came over to sit next to you.

"You did good, little sister. Even though you had one last moment of rebellion and wore that gorgeous green dress." He said, not looking at you as he spoke but instead surveying all the people in the crowd.

"Gorgeous green dress?" you questioned, ignoring everything else that he said in favor of the potential mockery. There was _nothing_ more fun that making fun of Justin.

"Oh. I said that? I meant… I meant… I meant not gorgeous green dress." He huffed, unable to come up with anything else to say.

You laughed at his child-like tone and nudged him with your shoulder. "So there?" you asked jokingly as he bumped you back.

"Yeah. So there." He quickly repeated, taking a drink form the plastic cup in his hands.

The two of you sit there for the rest of the night, occasionally talking to people who come over to either congratulate you or say hi to Justin. You mostly sit in silence, unwilling to admit that you missed each other but enjoying the time spent together.

You finally go to bed around three in the morning, not waking until one the next afternoon. You stumble down stairs, yawning a hello to Max as you collapsed next to him on the couch.

"Alex, could we talk to you for a second? You too, Justin." Your mom asked, sitting on the chair opposite you, your dad moved to stand by her shoulder and you automatically slid closer to Max so Justin had room in between you and the end of the couch to sit.

"Yeah?" Justin asked while you just blinked at them, not quite awake. Justin glances over at you and rolls his eyes, slipping an arm around you and pulling you up to rest on his shoulder so you stop falling into Max.

"Well. We were thinking of getting Justin an apartment. And… we kind of decided that you should just live with him, Alex. It'll make Jerry happier because he won't be as worried about you and it will cost less and really it's just easier all around." Your mom says quickly, folding her hands in her lap.

Well shit.

You're certainly awake now.


	2. Chapter 2

c h a p t e r _t w o_

(J U S T I N p o v)

Alex was going to college, which was honestly kind of a shock.

She was going to NYU, where you went, which was another shock. You thought that as soon as she was able she was going to leave you as far behind as she possibly could.

But now she was going to _live_ _with_ _you_?

What in the world were your parents thinking? Why would they do this?

You sat there silently as Alex demanded explanations and your parents failed to give adequate ones. She had sat up and was leaning forward on the couch, defiance written over every line of her body as she yelled reasons about why **this was a horrible freaking plan**.

You soon join in, arguing with Alex instead of against her for the first time you can remember, telling your parents that they are being **perfectly ridiculous** and that this plan is **not even close to a good idea**.

Max was just sitting there, he probably didn't really get the big deal, looking at the four of you blankly and probably just wondering when he was going to get breakfast.

There were _a lot_ of reasons for you to not want Alex to live with you.

She would scare away your friends.

You would have to clean up her messes, magical and not, constantly.

It was more than likely that she would break most of your stuff.

She would prank you all the time.

And, well, there was one more main reason that she _should not_ live with her.

You kind of, sort of, maybe have been having these dreams about her since you left.

Dreams that involved pretty much no clothing, entirely too much touching, and lots and lots of kissing.

Dreams that you should definitely not be having about your little sister.

So you yell at your parents and demand that Alex **not live with you** and she claims you're going to **cramp her style** and your parents listen to neither one of you and at the end of the day, they're hunting for an apartment big enough for both of you and your attitudes. And yeah, that is a direct quote from your mom.

Three weeks pass and your parents have found an apartment and you and Alex are out of new protests so now you're just repeating the old ones.

Before you know it, summer is over and you're moving into an apartment a block away from New York University.

Summer was actually pretty boring, spent working in the substation and running from Harper.

The only thing that wasn't boring, but kind of redundant, was the daily fights you and Alex had with your parents. Every single day the same argument with different words took place, both of you trying to get out of living with each other.

You aren't sure why Alex was protesting so vehemently, but you didn't want to live with her because you didn't trust yourself in such close quarters.

As it was, you were dreaming every night. You were dreaming about running your fingers down Alex's skin and pressing your lips to her's and sliding your hands up the pajamas she was wearing, consisting of one of your shirts and nothing else, up and up and _up_.

And that was terrible, in that spectacular kind of way, but then it was even more terrible because you enjoyed it and thought it was spectacular.

But they were _just_ _dreams_.

If you lived with her for an entire year, not just a summer that you could avoid her for most of, and _alone_, the dreams would probably get worse and something totally awful might happen, such as you blurting out your feelings or kissing her or doing something else completely, horribly stupid.

Living with her was _not_ going to work out well.

And yet.

You couldn't convince your parents, because really, what were you supposed to tell them? Sorry, I can't live with my sister because I'm kind of nervous that the small amount of space in our living quarters will result in me jumping her.

Yeah. That would go over _so_ well.

So here you were.

Moving into a two-bedroom apartment, with a living room a kitchen and one bathroom. Your family all enters and Alex immediately runs to the largest room, goes in, and slams the door behind her.

You follow her example, glaring at your annoyingly stubborn parents and walking into the other bedroom, closing the door as soon as you're all the way in.

You know you're being petty, but whatever, they're making you live with Alex, your little sister, the girl you want to kiss and unclothe and do not brotherly things to.

"Justin, all of your stuff is in the living room. Alex's stuff too. We love you. We're sorry you're so upset. We'll talk to you later." Your mother speaks though your door, and you whisper goodbye but you're still just so _angry_ that they're making you live with the temptation that you aren't allowed to be tempted by.

And you know that they don't know, but still.

You're kind of tired of being rational and levelheaded.

You're having freaking sex dreams about _Alex_.

Obviously, you're rational side left the building a while ago.

You close your eyes and put in headphones and try to let the music drown out your thoughts.

_But this things more than physical _

_I'll free your mind and I'll bless your soul_

_Tonight we're gonna lose track of time _

_Body and spirit will intertwine _

_And we'll stay here the rest of the night _

_Baby when the sun comes up _

_I'm gonna be holding you_

_It's destiny that you're next to me _

_I'm in love with you_

_Oh and baby when I wake up _

_I'm gonna be there with you_

_A new day rise I wanna look in your eyes when the sun comes up_

_Wait a minute baby I'm not through_

_I intend to spend more than one night with you_

_A love affair that never ends _

_Like the old song said "lets do it again"_

Well. That didn't work.

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(A L E X p o v)

You cannot freaking believe that you are living with Justin.

You know that you had already lived with him for like seventeen years.

But then he moved out and went off to college and you got used to him not being there.

Especially since he never called or wrote or anything.

Not that that bugged you.

Because really, it didn't.

You were not bothered.

Not one freaking bit.

But whatever.

That isn't the point.

The point is you're freaking _living_ with _Justin_.

He was totally going to ruin any social life that you could have had at college before you even had a chance to have the stupid social life. And he had been acting all crazy all summer too, ever since your graduation and your parent's announcement following graduation. Refusing to be in the same room with you alone and blowing off wizard class and actually _arguing_ with your mom and dad.

You arguing really wasn't a shock, not at all, actually. But _Justin_ arguing? It was like a sign of that apocalypse-thingy, the end of the world or whatever.

And yet, even with both of you fighting for the same cause of _not freaking living together_, your parents didn't listen and now you were sulking in your new room in your new apartment that you were sharing.

With Justin.

You jump up off the floor, tired of pouting, and go into the living room, throwing things left and right to try and find your box with all the art supplies. You finally find it and grab your paints and brushes, quickly choosing out all the shades of gray and black and white you have.

You move to the far wall and quickly start working, paint getting on your hands and then your face when you try to brush your hair back with your fingers.

Justin comes out of his room while your finishing and you can _almost_ hear the voice in his head wondering if this is allowed by the landlord.

"Alex? What are you doing? Is that even permitted? What if the landlord gets angry?" He asks and you snort at his predictability, stepping back to admire your work.

"Who cares? It's on Mom and Dad if it isn't allowed, and if it is allowed then there aren't really any problems, are there?" you turn to grin at him, dropping your paintbrushes into the cup of water you had placed on the floor earlier. "You like it?" you say, turning back to look at it again.

_**Passion. It lies in all of us. Sleeping. Waiting. And though unwanted, unbidden, it will stir. Open it's jaws and howl. It speaks to us, guides us. **_

_**Passion rules us all. **_

_**And we obey. **_

_**What other choice do we have? **_

_**Passion is the source of our finest moments. The joy of love. The clarity of hatred. And the ecstasy of grief. It hurts sometimes, more than we can bare. If we could live without passion, maybe we would know some kind of peace. But we would be hollow, empty rooms, shuttered and dank. Without passion, we'd be truly dead.**_

It's written in slanted cursive across the wall, each word a different shade of gray.

"It's… beautiful. What's it from?" he questions, his eyes turning towards you.

"Buffy. Angel says it. Right after he's gone all badass and evil, but he still loves her. Or is obsessed with her at the very least. Either way, she's all he can think about." It's one of your favorite line from the series and you didn't even really decide to paint it, it just kind of came out.

And then you hear a murmur, something that sounds suspiciously like **I understand how he feels**, before Justin is striding back into his room, telling you to clean up after yourself on the way.

You simply ignore him, looking once again at the various shades of gray on the wall and brushing already paint-covered hair back from your face.

You look at your paints, inspiration still thrumming through your veins.

After all, you are still surrounded by uncovered walls.

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So. Not all that sure that I like this. But whatever. The song is Sun Comes Up, by John Legend. Let me know your thoughts please! And also, let me know whether or not I should say what Alex paints or writes on the rest of the walls, or if I should just move on. Thank youuu!


	3. Chapter 3

C H A P T E R _**T H R E E**_

(j u s t i n _p o v_)

"Well you have the emotions of a freaking robot!" She yelled, eyes narrowed and fingers curled, nails looking more like claws then anything else.

"Robots don't have emotions!" You hollered back, unsure what even started the fight this time but unwilling to let her win.

"Exactly!" She shrieked before turning on her heel and storming to her room, the door slamming shut with a loud bang behind her.

It was midway through your third month of living with Alex.

And things were getting _unbearable_.

It wasn't like it had been before you left for college. Before, it was easier. You weren't having terrible (wonderful) dreams about her and your entire family was there to act as buffers. Max would make jokes and your mom would keep the peace and your dad would punish both of you if you stepped too far over the line.

There was none of that now.

It was just you and Alex.

There was no Max to laugh at or talk to when you started to annoy each other. Your mom wasn't there to tell you to calm down or to convince Alex to stop picking on you. Your dad wasn't there to enforce the rules.

And therefore the rules were obsolete, nonexistent, and completely gone.

Which resulted in skyrocketing tensions, way-too-close to cruel pranks, and more fighting than anything else.

This whole living with Alex thing was just not working out very well.

You don't even know what started this fight. The two of you were sitting in front of the TV, Alex eating something unhealthy and you trying to study, and then the next thing you know you're screaming at her and she's shouting back.

And then she's freaking yelling about how you have no emotions.

Which is perfectly ridiculous because really, the problem that you're currently having is not caused from a lack of emotions, it's a result from too many not good emotions.

Stupid not good emotions. They're taking over all your thoughts and screwing with you, messing up your studying habits and lowering your intellect levels.

And then Alex accuses you of _not having them_.

Which is ridiculous.

You know emotions, some better than others. Pain and sorrow and lust are your near constant companions, curiosity the only one that comes close to being around as often as the other three.

You know curiosity.

It's the bright flash of a newly accomplished spell and learning something new and a restless feeling underneath your skin, your body refusing to settle until it gets the answers that your mind seeks.

It's when you notice Alex is acting shiftier than usual and this burn spreads throughout you, only cooling once you've found out whatever new scheme Alex had come up with.

It's learning new things and getting perfect grades in school and wondering how your life is going to even out, how your love for science and your knack for magic will balance each other.

You know what pain is.

It's a sharp twist in your stomach that makes your appetite disappear and your hands clench and your eyes close.

It's when Alex glares at you in that unforgiving way that only she can.

It's when a mummy kidnaps Juliet and when she gets bitten by Mason and ages too rapidly and leaves you.

It's a result of seeing Alex and Dean kiss.

It's what you feel when you see that damn glowing necklace that Mason gave her, that was glowing because she was in love.

You know how sorrow feels.

It's tears that you won't cry and when your eyes turn completely gray and you play with you action figures, because they're your escape from the real world and whatever resulted in your sadness in the first place.

It's when Alex refuses to talk to you for three weeks because you were trying to protect her and you told your parents that she was out all night.

It's what you feel when you realize that you're forgetting Juliet, how she tasted and smelled and kissed.

It's because Alex won't visit you at college and the only time she'll talk to you is on random days at three in the morning, and even then she only calls because she's near wasted or hoping for your voicemail.

You know lust, how it feels and what it is.

It's a wave through your body that makes your knees weak and a shiver ripple down your spine and leaves tingles in its wake and causes you to gulp hard in an attempt to regain control.

It's what you feel after your first kiss, the real one, the one that took you way too many tries to get.

It used to be when you saw Juliet's long gold hair and perfect pink lips and cool pale skin.

It's Alex and the way she moves, the way she speaks, and the way she looks. It's when she bites her too full bottom lip and smiles at you, a real smile that you've never seen her bestow on anyone but you. It's how she dances when she thinks no one is watching and how she steals your clothes to wear whenever she does laundry.

You know curiosity and pain and sorrow and lust.

They're _Alex_.

Everything is.

And that's not good for your sanity.

**

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(A L E X p o v)**

Stupid Justin.

**You've been living with the jerk for almost three freaking months and he keeps shutting you out and refusing to talk to you and being an all around idiot.**

**So, you keep picking fights with him over ridiculous things. Like yesterday, you totally started yelling at him for using your toothpaste.**

**That's how petty you have become.**

**Simply because **_**freaking Justin**_** won't talk to you.**

**It's all his fault.**

**It's his fault that you can't properly party without fear of wrath from your parents and that you're actually getting good grades in your classes because he pisses you off and you storm into your room and there's nothing to do in there besides draw and study.**

**You're even improving in magic, you actually impressed your father a couple of weekends ago when you showed up Justin with all the new spells you had learned.**

**Idiotic Justin.**

**He's making you **_**learn**_** and you can't party and you're acting like a freaking girl and fighting with him over the stupidest things.**

**Things you don't even care about.**

**Because he won't talk to you.**

**Fights are all the contact you have left.**

_**Jeez**_** this sucks.**

**Freaking Justin.**

**This is all his fault.**

**

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**This took me forever and it's not even that long :( My apologies.


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